8 things to consider when choosing an application to scan and capture documents to SharePoint

 Stephen Boals is the V.P. of Sales for PSIGEN Software, Inc.  His broad background includes over 8.5 years as a Naval Flight Officer, “Big 4” Consulting with Ernst & Young, and various managerial/director level positions in IT, Technical Security and Professional Services.

8 things to consider when choosing an application to scan and capture documents to SharePoint

1 -- Do you need a scanning application or a capture application?

The marketplace is filled with applications that provide a means to convert paper to digital form, and I like to divide the offerings into two distinct silos:  scanning applications and capture applications.  If all you need to do is load paper and scan to a document library, and your volume is fairly light, scanning applications provide a simple, easy to use interface for these types of operations.  Capture applications focus on efficiency, standardization and automation.  They provide enhanced feature sets like 2D barcode reading, zone OCR, data extraction, enhanced backend integration and more.  There is a gray area between the two silos, as most scanning applications have some basic capture features.  Choose wisely young Luke Skywalker, and if you can, select an application that can live in both silos.

2 -- Standardization is King…and Queen, and Duke.

We have all seen the typical file server within our organizations, and it looks like a war zone.  The lack of folder and file naming standards allows every user to use creative license, and save things “the way they like.”  Scanning is no different, and putting in a scanning and capture process without standardization allows the end user to take their paper mess and recreate it digitally.  We have all seen the studies on the early adopters of SharePoint that are pulling their hair out at the absolute mess that has been created within their libraries.  It is paramount to select an onramp application that provides document library, folder name, file name and content type standardization through custom rule sets.

3 -- Hardware Agnostic – what about my 3-in-1?

Golly that’s a mighty big word.  Today’s imaging landscape includes all different types of devices: desktop scanners, scanning copiers, scanning fax machines, etc.   A scanning/capture application needs to work with just about anything out there that can be directly connected, or that can create an image file.   Leveraging the investment in existing hardware is important not only from a financial perspective, but also from a user familiarity perspective.  If you give users a simple, familiar way to scan, they are more likely to adapt to new technology.  Also, it allows flexibility in deployment and usage scenarios, and also gives you some hope any future hardware purchases will play nicely in your capture ecosystem.

4 -- OCR, ICR and OMR – feature overkill?

Okay, I just had to delve into the imaging acronym soup.  Probably the most important here is the capability to create searchable PDFs.  Install the PDF iFilter, setup your crawl rules, and you now have a fully searchable repository.  ICR and OMR?  Aren’t those a little overkill for a SharePoint implementation? I see a number of organizations using OMR routing sheets to create a simple and effective cover sheet to route documents to a particular library and folder structure.  Organizations can pre-print these, place them next to copiers, and provide onramp capability from any networked scanning device.  ICR, not so much, but it has its possibilities.

5 -- Barcodes – Aren’t they just overcomplicating things?

Barcodes can do more than just dazzle techies.  As organizations build out there entire document management strategy, the ultimate is the incorporation of barcodes into generated documents.  Take for example the HR Director who has barcodes placed on all her forms to provide separation as well as form identification.  Now when scanning employee packets, the capture software does the work, reading barcodes and routing documents to the appropriate library folder.  With 2D barcodes, we can now place 1,000 characters into a thumbnail size area, and automate the process further by embedding data into our contracts, forms, applications, etc.

6 -- SharePoint Integration – Sure we can scan to SharePoint!

The SharePoint train has arrived, and everyone is getting on.  Integration means something different to everyone.  To one vendor, it means just dropping a TIFF into a library, to another it means full lookup capability, content type mapping and folder standardization.  Dig deep into what goes on under the hood to make sure you get all that you want in an application.  Make sure that they are using the SharePoint API, and that all the connectivity is done through standard communication formats.

7 -- The Sandbox – Do you play nicely with others?

Every organization has multiple repositories across departments and groups.  Maybe it is the Accounting Department that uses SharePoint for AP, but also wants to dump check images to a folder.  Or the Law Firm that has a custom built MOSS Application, but also needs images scanned to their case management system.  Finding a flexible and extensible scanning/capture application that can fulfill multiple needs is an absolute requirement nowadays.

8 -- Usability – “It just doesn’t work for me.”

I have seen it time and time again, the end user revolt.  Put in a difficult, painful application, and it will soon have virtual cob webs everywhere.    The application needs to be user friendly, but should have some power user features as well to please the masses.  Along with this, and most important, is training.  End-user training on the use of the application and its capabilities can speed up the process, and overall adoption rate of the solution.

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Comments

[Tom]

Thanks for the info on standardization, it's one of my pet peeves. Especially when searching through some elses files.

[Neil Haddley]

Stephen,

Thank you for this great summary.

Your comments are spot on.

Kind regards

Neil Haddley
Dark Blue Duck

[Mike Beard]

Stephen,

Interesting article. I think you hit many of the "scanning challanges" issues. Here's a thaught, many documents that get scanned actually start their lives as data in the same company that scans them! Think of a POD or BOL, a company produces such (moves data to paper), the paper goes out into the world, get marked up and signed and upon return gets scanned (moved data from paper back into the same computer!)

What if there was a way to completely eliminate scanning in this application (that is very common!)?

There is..

PlanetPress (Transaction printing and workflow) + Anoto digital pen.

Now everything stays in the digital domain, all the "marks and signatures" are simply placed back in the original digital document and workflow actions can be created based on those hand written marks.

-Minimise paper
-Eliminate scanning
-Create 100% accurate searchable PDF's (they never became an image!)
-Capture marks and signatures as thay happen (no time lag waiting for paper to be returned)
-Virtually no user training

Would love to chat!
Mike Beard 973 780 0016

[business card scanner]

Awesome ! I am one of big fan following of your blog. Here I always get something new and useful things . Don't you believe i was getting lot of problems in capturing documents to sharepoint but you solved my big problem.